Product Description

Barry John has often been referred to as the George Best of rugby. Considered by many to be the greatest rugby player of his generation, he possessed the pop-star image: tall, dark and handsome. An idol to millions of sports lovers throughout the world, Barry John was mobbed wherever he went. He also had the world at his feet, just like Best. When Barry John quit rugby at the height of his dazzling career, aged just 27, he caused one of the sporting shocks of the century. He has never fully explained the reasons for his abrupt departure - until now. In this account, he reveals in great detail for the first time why he had to step out of the limelight. Barry John talks openly about his hard-hitting views on the modern game, of the professional explosion and about his fears for rugby union's very future. Describing the 1999 World Cup in his Welsh homeland as "boring", he gives his revolutionary blueprint to rescue the game in the new millennium.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #927288 in Books
• Published on: 2001-10-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 208 pages

About the Author
Paul Abbandonato is Sports Editor of the award-winning Wales on Sunday. He lives in Cardiff with his wife and Paula and their three young children Ben, Sam and Joe.

Customer Reviews

Unbelieveably poor
This book is truly awful and I speak as a fan of BJ's rugby skills, but not now of his writing...

He laboriously trundles through his well documented successes and offers little insight into how he achieved greatness or his own personal development.

Similarly, I would me really interested to find out what we could learn from the late great Carwyn James but all we get told is that he was a great communicator etc without actually finding out what the content of CJ's great plan was...

The foreword by George Best led me to believe I was in for a real treat, but it was all downhill from there. Not only the content but the writing style of the book left a lot to be desired and the assistant writer should be held accountable for this.

The 'hilarious' anecdotes which I so looked forward to reading about all finished annoyingly with an exclamation mark telegraphing the point at which the reader should laugh. These indeed did bring tears to my eyes , but they were tears of boredom !

As a fan of Welsh rugby all I can say is save yourself a few quid and precious reading time and look elsewhere for a rugby biography worth reading.